What a clustfck of a cabin stay that was. Well, the trip was nice and the scenery was great, but Cabins of the Smokies...you're not good. Sunday, less than 18 hours before we check into the cabin, which was advertised as 2 bedrooms, 2 levels with balcony on each, scenic view, HOT TUB outside, video game system and pool table. Neither of us could care about the last 2. COTS (as they shall be called) EMAILED my wife and said, blah blah blah, you're almost here for a great vacation, oh btw we have a couple of maintenance issues we need to make you aware of. First, the hot tub is broken and needs service, the video game system is broken and the TWO pool tables have to be replaced. (sounds like someone had a good time).
My wife loses her
We get to the Gatlinburg area, wait on a call. Virtual check in, so they just call when the cabin is clean (clean is a relative term here) and give you the door code. Check in is at 4. About 20 calls and gnashing of teeth later, we finally got in at 8:30. It's not trashed, but it's not exactly Hampton Inn clean. 4 Beds -2 up 2 down. My wife immediately goes into full health dept inspector. Out of the 4, 1 bed was made up with a fitted sheet, flat sheet, and comforter. And it was obviously not CLEAN sheets. EW. The other 3 bedrooms were comforter no sheets, flat not fitted and fitted no flat. More calls, they offer to comp the first night. HOW ABOUT SOME SHEETS? Oh and some towels too. In the entire cabin there are 2 bath towels, unless you count the 2 dirty ones out by the hot tub, which, BTW is overflowing. They obviously drained it. Cleaned? Meh. But it's being refilled, to the tune of it pouring over the sides. But a quick drain, mess with the controls, it's COLD but heating up. So main criteria met.
About 9 oclock we have towels and clean sheets. We then go thru all 4 rooms like Goldilocks and pick the best (being generous) bed. It's downstairs, which is great because it is colder down there. But it's only marginally better than the floor. Then, wife read that some big group booked a bunch of cabins and the doors codes are ALL THE SAME. So someone is going to come in and kill us. So I had to barricade the upstairs door, even though the bottom balcony is some 20 feet off the ground and there's not other doors. Surprisingly, we made it 3 nights without murder.
But the view from the deck was AWESOME! Sitting in the hot tub, having drinks and looking at the mountains and the trees turning was worth the headaches.
But Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, and Sevierville in the fall...never again. It took us over 1.5 hours to make it the last mile up to the top of Clingman's dome! Awesome drive, if you're not sitting for 5 to 10 minutes at a time. Gatlinburg is one big tourist trap. The traffic is a nightmare. The pedestrians don't give a red rat's ass about the walk/don't walk signs and cause even more traffic snarl.
I will say this...Alamo Grill in Gatlinburg. It's a little outside of the downtown cluster
Now, I have a biz trip to Detroit. Then maybe I can get back to looking for a ride.
My wife loses her
We get to the Gatlinburg area, wait on a call. Virtual check in, so they just call when the cabin is clean (clean is a relative term here) and give you the door code. Check in is at 4. About 20 calls and gnashing of teeth later, we finally got in at 8:30. It's not trashed, but it's not exactly Hampton Inn clean. 4 Beds -2 up 2 down. My wife immediately goes into full health dept inspector. Out of the 4, 1 bed was made up with a fitted sheet, flat sheet, and comforter. And it was obviously not CLEAN sheets. EW. The other 3 bedrooms were comforter no sheets, flat not fitted and fitted no flat. More calls, they offer to comp the first night. HOW ABOUT SOME SHEETS? Oh and some towels too. In the entire cabin there are 2 bath towels, unless you count the 2 dirty ones out by the hot tub, which, BTW is overflowing. They obviously drained it. Cleaned? Meh. But it's being refilled, to the tune of it pouring over the sides. But a quick drain, mess with the controls, it's COLD but heating up. So main criteria met.
About 9 oclock we have towels and clean sheets. We then go thru all 4 rooms like Goldilocks and pick the best (being generous) bed. It's downstairs, which is great because it is colder down there. But it's only marginally better than the floor. Then, wife read that some big group booked a bunch of cabins and the doors codes are ALL THE SAME. So someone is going to come in and kill us. So I had to barricade the upstairs door, even though the bottom balcony is some 20 feet off the ground and there's not other doors. Surprisingly, we made it 3 nights without murder.
But the view from the deck was AWESOME! Sitting in the hot tub, having drinks and looking at the mountains and the trees turning was worth the headaches.
But Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, and Sevierville in the fall...never again. It took us over 1.5 hours to make it the last mile up to the top of Clingman's dome! Awesome drive, if you're not sitting for 5 to 10 minutes at a time. Gatlinburg is one big tourist trap. The traffic is a nightmare. The pedestrians don't give a red rat's ass about the walk/don't walk signs and cause even more traffic snarl.
I will say this...Alamo Grill in Gatlinburg. It's a little outside of the downtown cluster
Now, I have a biz trip to Detroit. Then maybe I can get back to looking for a ride.